John P. Roche Collection

1886-1965

324 items (6 linear ft.)

Call no.: RB 008

Read collection overview

A political scientist, writer, and government consultant, John P. Roche was born in Brooklyn, N.Y., on May 7, 1923, the son of a salesman. A liberal Social Democrat and fervent anti-Communist, Roche spent his academic career at Haverford College and Brandeis and Tufts Universities, writing extensively on American foreign policy, constitutional law, and the history of political thought in America, and maintaining a strong interest in the history of the American left. During the 1960s and early 1970s, he served as an adviser to the Kennedy, Johnson, and Nixon administrations.

The Roche Collection consists of over 300 publications pertaining to the political left in the United States, with a smaller number of works from the radical right and from European Socialists and Communists. Concentrated in the years spanning the Great Depression, the Second World War, and the McCarthy hearings, many of the works were produced by formal political parties in response to particular political campaigns, current events, or social issues, with other works geared primarily toward consciousness raising and general political education on trade unionism, fascism, war and peace, American foreign policy, and freedom of speech and the press.

Background on John P. Roche

A political scientist, writer, and government consultant, John P. Roche was born in Brooklyn, N.Y., on May 7, 1923, the son of a salesman. After undergraduate study at Hofstra and war-time service in the Air Force, Roche received his doctorate in political science at Cornell in 1949, and embarked upon an academic career. Following several years at Haverford College (1949-1956), he was appointed to the faculty at Brandeis University, eventually becoming chair of his department and then Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences. A liberal Social Democrat and fervent anti-Communist, Roche's writing and research centered on American foreign policy, constitutional law, and the history of political thought in America, but he maintained a strong interest in the history of the American left generally, and particularly the Socialist and Communist parties. A prolific writer, he was author or editor of more than a dozen books.

In 1961, Roche left Brandeis to pursue a series of fellowships and appointments with such groups as the Rockefeller Foundation and Hudson Institute, and he served as an advisor to the Kennedy, Johnson, and Nixon administrations. He returned to academia in 1973 as Professor on the School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University, where he remained until his retirement. He died from complications of a stroke on May 6, 1994.

Scope of collection

The Roche Collection consists of over 300 publications pertaining to the political left in the United States, with a smaller number of works from the radical right and from European Socialists and Communists. Concentrated in the years spanning the Great Depression, the Second World War, and the McCarthy hearings, many of the works were produced by formal political parties in response to particular political campaigns, current events, or social issues, with other works geared primarily toward consciousness raising and general political education on trade unionism, fascism, war and peace, American foreign policy, and freedom of speech and the press. The authors are diverse as the topics, ranging from Father Coughlin's anti-semitic radio sermons and the screeds of Joseph P. Kamp (Director of the Constitutional Education League) on the far right to Martin Luther King's Letter from Birmingham City Jail and the writings of Earl Browder, Norman Thomas, David Paul Berenberg, and Rosa Luxemburg on the left.

Inventory

Adler, Friedrich, 1879-1960: The witchcraft trial in Moscow

1937

DK266.3 .A2 1937

American Civil Liberties Union.: Civil liberty

1935

JC599.U5 S43 1935

American Civil Liberties Union.: Shall we defend free speech for Nazis in America?

1934

JC591.A43 S5 1934

American Civil Liberties Union.: Who's un-American?

1935

JC599.U5 43 1935

American Legion: The American Legion and the Communists discuss democracy

1938

JC433 .A5 1938

Amerasia

1937-1947

DS501 .A55

American Socialist Monthly

1936-1937

HX1 .S33 1936

American Socialist Quarterly

1934-1935

HX1 .S33 1934

American Workers Party.: Toward an American revolutionary labor movement;

1934

HX89 .A64 1934

Ameringer, Oscar, 1870-1943.: Socialism

ca.1930

H86 .A437 1930

Ameringer, Oscar, 1870-1943.: The Yankee primer

ca.1933

HX86 .A5 1933

Angell, Norman, Sir, 1874-1967.: Raw materials, population pressure and war